Thursday, January 29, 2009

With A Salary of $33 Million Last Year, Rush Limbaugh Should Be Able to Take It On The Chins!

Rush Limbaugh is getting some flack. That's not unusual, but the flack is now coming from Republicans as well as Democrats. The problem? His comments about President Obama.

Moderate Republicans are ashamed:

(from Think Progress)

Some Republicans are even saying that Limbaugh is a negative influence on the party. Speaking to the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, former McCain adviser John Weaver called Limbaugh one of “the most controversial voices on the extreme right,” adding that it is dangerous if he is perceived to “speak for all members of the center/right movement.”

Limbaugh has called the President "Halfrican American". He also brazenly stated on his show that he hoped Obama would fail because it would ultimately be better for the United States.

"...the country is being forced to “bend over, grab the ankles, bend over forward, backward, whichever” because Obama’s “father was black, because this is the first black president.”

Of course, President Obama couldn't resist a very pithy response to Limbaugh's crudities:

In a meeting with congressional leaders from both parties last week, President Obama told the GOP members that “You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.” As expected, Limbaugh responded to the presidential mention of his name with his usual bluster, stating, “I think Obama wants me to fail.”

Of course, Rush does have his staunch supporters, like Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) on Norah O'Donnell's MSNBC program:

PENCE: I don’t believe Rush Limbaugh has a racist bone in his body. If you’re suggesting that his statement had a racist element in it, I commend you to a greater understanding of the positions he’s taken. He’s a man about opportunity of all Americans, regardless of race, creed, or color. That’s why he’s so admired and appreciated across America.

I can imagine people across the country laughing at that one, especially the phrase "admired and appreciated." And anyone who thinks Limbaugh isn't racist, hasn't been listening to Limbaugh much!

Here are some choice quotes of Rush Limbaugh:

Words do not kill.

Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.

They're 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?

Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?

I'm going to tell you, what's good for al-Qaeda is good for the Democratic Party in this country today.

(Abu Ghraib): This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation.

This is really shameless of Michael J Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting.

Compassion is no substitute for justice.

The dream end of this [of Operation Chaos] is that this keeps up to the Convention, and that we have a recreation of Chicago 1968 with burning cars, protests, fire, and literal riots and all of that, that is the objective here."

Rep Alan Grayson (D-Fla) had this to say about Limbaugh:

He actually was more lucid when he was a drug addict. If America ever did 1% of what he wanted us to do, then we’d all need pain killers.”

OMG! I just had the most horrible thought: what if...Rush Limbaugh married Ann Coulter? Imagine the offspring!?! Would God look down upon us and say "That's it, the last straw. This whole mankind/earth thing has been a dismal failure."

As President Barack Obama reverses some of ex-President George W. Bush's most controversial "war on terror" policies, a consensus seems to be building among Democratic congressional leaders that further investigations are needed into Bush's use of torture and other potential crimes.

We're crossing our fingers.

We can't fault Barack Obama for trying to concentrate on the future, but we also have to agree that, as Nancy Pelosi stated to Chris Wallace of Fox News, "the past is prologue." We are doomed to repeat this sordid piece of American history if we do not learn from it. Republicans would rather have us all become revisionists.

President Obama has been elected, in part, to do damage control. However, the country needs to know just how much damage has been done. Gitmo brutalities aside, people need to know all of the Who What When Where and Hows of the Bush administration - the most secretive in U.S. history. Cheney and Rove have stated that history will be much kinder to the Bush cabal than we think. How long do we have to wait for that judgment? While Cheney, Rove, Bush et al sit back, comforted by their own words, the country will be asking "Who put us here?"

We really need to know.

Obama's aides have indicated that there soon may be a "public airing" of secret Justice Department legal opinions and other documents that provided the underpinning for the Bush administration's brutal interrogation policies.

So, Mr. President, as much as you may not want to enforce it, you have a mandate from the people: investigate NOW.